When you’re feeling peckish and your have old rice in the fridge, fried rice is the way to go. It’s fast to make and even faster to eat. If you’re lacking fresh ingredients, just take a look at what leftovers you have languishing away. I’ve made fried rice with leftover barbecue meat, deli meat leftovers, and even just eggs and rice.

Yesterday, I had a fierce craving for fried rice, but I didn’t have any rice or suitable fried rice ingredients in the fridge, so I did the cardinal sin: I made fried rice with fresh rice. If you’ve ever made fried rice with fresh rice you know that it usually turns into a wet mess. The best thing you can do is spread your rice out to let it cool down. Once it’s cold and therefore more dry, you can usually fry it up just fine.

I didn’t have any meat in the fridge, so I just fried my rice with eggs and a bit of XO sauce. The XO sauce has been hanging out in the fridge for a while, just begging to be used in fried rice.

A friend once told me how some young thugs tried to make fun of him:

Thugs: You Chinese, you eat flied lice!
My Friend: Yeah, I do eat fried rice, you have a problem with that?

I guess the thugs didn’t have anything else to say because they just left.

Heat your wok or frying pan over high heat and add a tiny bit of oil and scramble your lightly beaten eggs until mostly set, but not over cooked. The eggs will cook a bit more when you fry all the ingredients together. Remove the eggs from the wok and set aside.

Add a tiny bit more oil to the wok and add the fry and fry it, stirring occasionally until all the clumps are broken down and the rice is heated, about five minutes.

Add the XO sauce and continue frying until it mixed completely. Put the eggs back in the wok along with the green onions. Stir to mix, season to taste and serve immediately.

I love fried rice! A 20-something frat boy ex-roommate of mine used to make it as his specialty, and considering myself the Chef of the apartment I was always awed by his knack with fish sauce and a wok. It was my favorite thing for our “roommate dinners” and I haven’t had a good homemade fried rice since. I’ll have to give this a try! Looks delicious :)